Wales Office Minister Guto Bebb claimed EU
structural funds had been "wasted" but pledged that a new way of allocating development funding would allow a more "strategic approach".
Mr Brown called on the UK Government to safeguard European
Structural Funds, currently worth 828 million, and European Territorial Cooperation funding worth up to 50m, for the long term.
We send PS350m each week to the EU, PS9bn net per year, but the UK does very badly out of
structural funds as a country.
Ministers or senior officials in charge of cohesion policy will meet, on 26 November in Vilnius, Lithuania, to discuss implementation of the key innovations introduced in the
Structural Funds for the years 2014-2020.
SINCE 2007, some PS2 billion of EU
Structural Funds, delivered through the Welsh Government, have been invested in EU projects across Wales.
He welcomed recent comments by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on an increase in
structural funds to Cyprus, as well as encouraging statements from the EU's economic commissioner Olli Rehn.
He also signed a budget agreement of nearly 23 million with the Commission pending Mayotte's eligibility for EU
Structural Funds as an outermost region.
The JESSICA holding fund Greece, with a budget of EUR 258 M until 31 December 2015, is financed partly from EU
structural funds and partly from national public funding.
In early January President Berzins had a meeting with Steinbuka to discuss the process of absorption of the
structural funds in Latvia.
The Welsh public will recall that parts of Wales automatically qualified for
structural funds in the late 1990s after Tory underinvestment.
Financing energy investments in housing with support from the European
Structural Funds will soon be possible in all the EU member states, an option only offered to the new' member states at present.
The cash from the European
Structural Funds will be available from January 1 to support businesses and increase job creation and skills.
